It's up to parents to determine whether there will be all-girl and all-boy classes at Muskegon Public Schools middle schools next year.

The district is offering the single-sex classes as an option for parents to sign up for this spring when they enroll their children for next year, said Muskegon Superintendent Colin Armstrong.

Despite "lukewarm" reaction to the idea from parents earlier this winter, single-sex classes will be offered for each of the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Each class would stay together for the core academic areas of math, English, science and social studies.

The classes will be offered if enough students sign up to make an average-size class possible, Armstrong said.

Potentially, there could be six single-sex classes each at Steele and Bunker middle schools, but Armstrong said he'd be "real happy" to get just one at each school up and running for the first year.

"What we very well may end up with is something like a grade six boys class at Steele, and a grade eight girls class at Bunker," Armstrong said.

He proposed the idea earlier this year, and said he believes single-sex classes could be less distracting and could encourage students to participate more in class.

For the complete story, return to Mlive.com or pick up a copy of Saturday's Muskegon Chronicle.